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MR. FRESCOTT'S 



JULY 4, 1832. 







ORATION: 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



OFFICERS OF THE MILITIA, AND MEMBERS OF THE 

VOLUNTEER COMPANIES OF BOSTON AND 

THE VICINITY, 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1832, 



AT THEIR REQUEST. 



BY COLONFX EDWARD G. PRESCOTT. 



BOSTON: 
JOHN H. EASTBURN, PRINTER. 



M DCCC XXX II. 



.BU 



Boston, July 4, 1832. 

Dear Sir. 

At a meeting of tlie Committee of Arrangements appointed 
by the Officers of the 3d Brigade 1st Division of the Militia, for 
the Celebration of the Fourth of July, it was " Voted" That the 
thanks of this Committee be presented to Colonel Edward G. 
Prescott for the eloquent and instructive Oration delivered by him 
this day, and that a sub-committee be appointed to request a Copy 
for the press," 

We have much pleasure in communicating the above Vote, 
and respectfully solicit your compliance with the request it contains. 

Sir, 

We are, your Very Ob. Servts. 

John S. Tyler ^ 

Thomas Davis > Sub Committee. 

John F. Banister j 

To Colonel Edward G. Prescott. 



Boston Juhj 5, 1832. 
Gentlemen, 

I have this morning received your letter containing the vote 
of the " Committee of Arrangements appointed by the officers of the 
3d Brigade," for which please to accept my acknowledgements. 

In compliance with your request, I have the honor to enclose 
to you the oration. If any inaccuracies should appear in it, let me 
beg of you to remember that the notice of my appointment was very 
short, and that necessary public duties have occupied much of my 
time since. 

Very respectfully 

Your Obt Svt 

EDWD. G. PRESCOTT. 



To 



John S Tyler ^ 

Thomas Davis \ Committee. 

John F Bannister > 



2^ Cj } uf ^ 



1 



ORATIO]^. 



Brethren, 

Among the ancient and time-honored observances 
of our country, is that of commemorating this anni- 
versary — of keeping high festival upon that day in 
which our infant liberty was baptized in the blood 
of our purest and best. If ever there were any oc- 
casion which called for remembrance, it was this. 
It was at that time that there was promulgated the 
result to which a long series of toils and of contests 
had brought a nation, and a solemn invocation to that 
nation, to defend what it had already acquired. The 
first rejoicings which it called forth, must necessarily 
have been tempered by sad forebodings. The fetter 
of the slave was broken, but where was he to rest 
his head, and how was he to guard his freedom ? 
Without any lights from experience, without the his- 
tory of a single similar undertaking to guide them, 
our ancestors had boldly set in motion the vast wheels 
of a new government, which might roll on in majesty 
and harmony, or might hurry forward to its own de- 
struction. We at this time have no such dangers to 
apprehend. The experiment has been tried, and we 



4 

can look back over its undeviating track for more than 
half a century, and find spreading away from its 
course only the evidences of increasing comfort and 
prosperity. Their views were confined solely to the 
future, and 

Shadows, clouds and darkness 
Hung above it. 

We look to the past, and with humble reverence 
draw lessons for our own guidance from its history ; 
to the present and find strengthening around us, 
the usages which have descended to us hallowed 
by the experience of our fathers ; and to the time 
which is to come, with the knowledge that our 
inheritance is indeed a noble one ; based upon the 
only sure foundation — the union of a respected system 
of laws, a revered religion, and a protected liberty. 
With such a knowledge, our responsibility is great ; 
if w^e fail, the world may mourn, for the noblest ex- 
ample which time has ever held up, will have perish- 
ed — and if we fail — our fathers have done all that 
they could, and have transmitted to us an almost 
unlimited territory, and matchless characters ; Equal 
laws have been handed down to us, acknowledging 
us to be a community of freemen ; the mild influ- 
ence of religion has been poured around us, and her 
voice has been heard crying aloud — " If we noiv 
fail, our blood will be upon our ow^n heads." 

Situated as we are upon the very point of time in 
which the distrust hitherto entertained respecting 
republican forms of government, seems gradually 
giving way before successful experiment, permit me 
to ask your attention to a very few of the peculiar!- 



ties which distinguish us from that part of the world 
called ill comparison with our own, " the old" ; and 
of which we were for so long a time, an appendage 
and part. 

Within the last few years no small portion of Eu- 
rope has been distracted by wars or civil commotions. 
The vast territory of Russia has been convulsed by 
the noble and fierce strivings of a portion of its sub- 
jugated inhabitants to obtain freedom for themselves, 
and a rank for their country among the other nations 
of the earth. Here, from our own peaceful shores, 
we watched the contest, and so long as there 
was one doubt as to the result, continued such con- 
tributions as were in our power ; — contributions 
which, though small in actual amount, yet went forth 
to them in their struggle with the assurance of our 
sympathy, like a voice from the land of freedom, 
bidding them God speed. I need not detail to you 
the result Our best wishes, our hopes, our prayers 
were for Poland. All were in vain — she fell ! Yet 
Russia rose from her victory, after the loss of immense 
treasures and the bravest of her sons ; only to know 
that her laurels were viewed with detestation by the 
freemen of every country, and that the most bitter 
of all lessons had been scourged into her — respect 
for an enemy she had hitherto despised. 

France has witnessed another revolution, in which 
the streets of her capital have been deluged with blood; 
her monarch exiled, and a new dynasty established ; 
and the three glorious days which were hailed as 
opening to her a bright prospect of future tranquillity, 
were intended to create a monarchical republic. 



6 

Alas ! for France. The storm which had poured 
upon it in its wrath, has but just passed away, and 
ah-eady the murmuring of a new tempest is heard 
upon her shores. 

Portugal is at this moment shaken to her centre 
by parties striving to place each their own candidate 
upon her contested throne. Greece has had her 
wars ; and the arms of France liave planted the 
cross upon the towers of Algiers. The starving 
population too of Ireland, have risen to outrage those 
laws, which have failed to give them relief, and have 
marked their own course with conflagration and 
death ; and England, " Merry England," seeking as 
her leaders think her long lost rights, has had her 
borders rent by infuriated citizens, and has been 
mournfully occupied within her own bounds in quel- 
ling riots w hich have w asted her property, and almost 
shaken her throne. 

Amidst this confusion, America has been at peace. 

Some of these distinctions between parts of the 
old country and ourselves, I am aware, are not per- 
manent, but will pass away with the causes which 
created them ; and yet though perhaps in some in- 
stances they may be traced to local situation, or 
incidental circumstances, a majority are the result of 
abuses which have been engendered by their forms of 
government, but which will not be likely soon to 
invade ours. 

Another fundamental and important peculiarity 
W'hich marks our country, is the early age at which 
our young men arc brought forward into life and take 
an active and iniluential interest in public affairs. 



That this is a peculiarity under our form of gov- 
ernment, no one who looks around him can doubt. 
In the nations of Europe, a great majority of those 
who have supported a prominent part in public con- 
cerns, or indeed are in any way connected with them, 
have passed into mature life. Occasionally it is true, 
there is a brilliant exception. Such for instance as 
is afforded by the history of the Younger Pitt ; but 
these are miracles which do not occur once in a cen- 
tury, and only show of how much a gigantic mind 
is capable, by the very success with which it stems 
the current of common prejudice. In point of fact, 
in England, the system of education can hardly be 
said to be completed, until after the season of youth 
is gone by. 

Such is not the case with us. Turn where we 
will, it is the strong arm of the young man which 
greets us in action, and his bold, unshrinking plans 
which are discussed in council. There is no path 
which does not lie open to his footsteps — for the 
first, the imperishable words of our Bill of Rights ; 
words which are practically recognized in all branches 
of our government, and which were traced by 
those patriots, whose spirits almost like that of 
Moses, amid the " Thunder and the lightning and 
the thick cloud" held communion with the God of 
Liberty, are that " All men are born free and equal." 
Before that sublime declaration, made for the first 
time, in America, the distinctions of birth have fallen. 
The mind, which constitutes the immortal part of 
man, has at last been permitted to distribute its 
own badges of nobility ; and reason, which had pa- 



8 

tiently waited for the discovery of a new world before 
she asserted her rights, has at length proclaimed upon 
our shores the natural. freedom and equality of all. — 
Yet though the fact undoubtedly is, that our young 
men are brought forward at an earlier age than those 
of any other country, it is not through the means of 
any encouragement specially applied for them. You 
can place your finger upon no single line in our Con- 
stitution or the laws of either of our States, having 
such an end in view. It is rather because this pro- 
tection is so interwoven with their very spirit, that 
they have become one and indivisible. The neces- 
sities of the times in which our charter was drafted 
made this imperative. Foreign and domestic foes 
were then alike to be dreaded. It was not the fire 
which was fast fading upon the time worn heart, that 
could flash up and warm the feeble veteran into his 
youthful strength and powers of resistance. No ! 
When the whoop of the red man broke the stillness 
of midnight upon a frontier settlement, and his dusky 
form was seen gliding among the embers of the burn- 
ing cottage, it was the vigorous bosom of youth which 
was to meet, and his unshaking nerve which was to 
repel the invasion — and when the land for a new 
settlement was to be cleared, and a foundation hewn 
out of the solid forest for the future city, the axe 
could only be laid to the root of the tree, by an arm 
which years had not withered. 

A class of men by the mere circumstances of the 
times made of such importance to the immediate 
welfare of the whole, could not fail of being recog- 
nized and encouraged by the laws which they them- 



9 

selves protected — and the necessary consequence 
was, that an earlj and easily obtained right of suf- 
frage, admitted men to a participation in the direction 
of affairs of National and State Governments in our 
country, at a much earlier period than that in which 
they would be thought capable of holding such offices 
elsewhere. This very fact constituted no inconside- 
rable portion of the political experiment destined to 
be tried upon our shores. I have alluded to an easily 
obtained right of suffrage ; in a land where the natu- 
ral equality of all is recognized as the basis of its 
institutions, and where in its earlier stages the price 
of the soil was little more than the mere labor of 
clearing, not only was there nothing to prevent every 
man from obtaining an interest in it, but every in- 
ducement was held out to persuade him to do so. 
A strange people settling down in the midst of sus- 
picious allies, or treacherous enemies, every increase 
to the number composing any settlement, was a 
strengthening of its hands, and an additional pledge 
for the safety of the whole. Once a citizen, once 
having claimed a right, or discharged the smallest 
duties belonging to that station, and the door was 
thrown open to all its privileges. 

The most valuable of these, under an elective gov- 
ernment, I need not say, is the right of voting. 

Changing a majority of our ofiicers annually, each 
qualified citizen may aim at an election, and every 
interest be represented ; and in the free and manly 
discussion of principles which our policy encourages, 
a field is open in which even the youthful laborer may 
render himself conspicuous, and through which the 
2 



10 

honest exertion of talents is at all times encouraged 
to shape its course. 

The effect of this is visible upon our institutions. 

Both in our State and National Councils, and in 
all our deliberative assemblies, the • voices of our 
young men are heard mingling, and often taking a 
leading part ; and with the exception of the chief 
magistracy of our country, there is no class of office 
which may not be, and in fact has not been occupied 
by them. 

Another reason resulting directly from the princi- 
ple which 1 have before mentioned, is the encourage- 
ment given by our laws to each individual to select 
such occupation, whether profession or active busi- 
ness, as he may deem best adapted to promote his 
own interest and welfare. It is a well known fact, 
that in Europe, certain classes of men hold office 
by birth, and others have practically obtained pos- 
session of the whole of certain branches of business, 
which they may, and do exercise, to the exclusion of 
all others. This constitutes a system of monopoly, 
and is in fact the building up of some few, upon the 
rights of the many. Of such systems we know no- 
thing. It is open to every parent to educate his child 
according to his means and inclination, and when that 
child has come to years of maturity, the whole field 
lies before him to take such course as he may prefer. 
The consequence of this state of things is, that there 
is in every direction a healthy competition, and of 
course that all tlic necessaries of life on the one hand, 
will be afforded at their lowest possible value, and 
on the other, that talents in whatever way applied 



11 

and without regard to age, will comiiiand that en- 
couragement which is their due. Thus far we have 
shown no tendency to any thing like this destructive 
practice. We have corporations it is true, though 
with us they are confined to no set of men, but on 
the contrary, are open to all, and every man who 
knows any thing of their organization, is aware that 
they are by special clauses in their charters, placed 
under the stern supervision of our Legislatures, and 
are liable to have those charters withdrawn, the mo- 
ment that they abuse the purposes for which they 
were granted. So long as this continues, our young 
men need no special encouragement to bring them 
forward. Cheapness of living, and a comparatively 
sparse population, are bounties upon an early settle- 
ment ; and the right of being heard for themselves — 
of coming forward if they can, — of struggling on 
amidst others striving for a similar purpose, while it 
insures to the country that her sons must toil, insures 
to them, early success. 

After all, however, perhaps the most operative rea- 
son is to be found in the extent of the country itself. 
At this very moment much of it is almost in the 
same state of infancy, as was Plymouth, when the 
May-flower having landed her little band of Pilgrims 
upon the corner-stone of our nation, swimg slowly 
round from it on her homeward passage. There are 
still wildernesses to be settled, where beneath our 
own skies the smoke curls over the wigwam of the 
savage, and his hunting-ground is yet sacred to him- 
self — but the progress of civilization is felt there, and 
it rolls on burying beneath its waters the lingering 



12 

traces of the native of our soil — Alas, for the savage ! 
his blood could not mingle with ours, and our "name 
was Legion.''' He has slowly retired before us, and 
left 10 us his pleasant home, his cherished graves. 
Far away, where the sun sets, he has sought another 
home, but the foot-step of the white man has fallen 
there too, and after his last desperate struggle for his 
new altars, his territory v» ill have passed away from 
him — forever. For ages yet to come, new settlers 
will be demanded, and our emigrants will be met 
with " on their winding way," to build up cities in 
the deserts and the prairies. A young man who 
goes there now, soon finds a population gathering 
about him ; and growing with his part of the coun- 
try, he assumes and holds a high rank, and in a few 
years is heard of as a wealthy citizen, projecting or 
executing plans of enterprize and improvement; or 
vindicating the rights of his constituents in the halls 
of Congress. 

But it is not only by the industrious emigrant him- 
self that the effect of his removal is felt. We ac- 
knowledge its inlluence here, both because his ex- 
ample inspires those who remain, and because a 
larger space is left open by it to their exertions, — and 
while we see ^^hat the youth of one part of our land 
have done, we more readily listen to the promises of 
what others can do. 

It is in consequence of our comparatively thin po- 
pulation every where, and its perpetual increase both 
in numbers and in w^ealth, that a continued demand 
IS kept up for the services of all classes of our citi- 
zens ; and resultiii": from this is the fact which I have 



13 * 

before noticed, that education is completed, and the 
responsibilities of life assumed here, at an earlier pe- 
riod than in any other portion ol our globe. Ano- 
ther consequence of the infant state of our country, 
and one which tends to bring forward certain of her 
citizens early, is that almost the whole field of her 
literature is to this day left unexplored. Our pre- 
vious situation, and the times themselves have here- 
tofore rendered this necessary. Our inhabitants for 
a long period struggling for freedom, afterwards found 
themselves impoverished and obliged to contend 
for existence. It was not until of late years that we 
have found leisure to become a literary nation, or the 
power to encourage native talent. Both are now 
ours, and a territory lies before us such as has never 
yet been wandered over ; fraught even in our brief 
history with deeds of daring and endurance which 
far outstrip the bright colouring of fiction, and scenes 
of romantic and sublime interest which may chal- 
lenge the world. 

These are the newly opened quarries, out of which 
native genius has already begun to hew for itself im- 
mortality ; and from which such men as Irving, 
Cooper, Bryant, Percival, Sprague, and a host of 
other of our young countrymen have drawn the ma- 
terials of their early fame. 

I have endeavored briefly to state a few of the 
reasons which have given the youth of America such 
an early prominence. Many other causes might 
have been adduced, but not within the limits which 
I propose to myself in addressing you. 



14 

That under proper restrictions its effect is useful 
there can be no doubt ; and under those restrictions 
it must continue as it already has so far done, to dif- 
fuse an energy which has been witnessed in no other 
government, and which has led to a growth of our 
country, unparalleled thus far in the annals of the world. 

The abuses by which it is to be feared that these 
good effects may at some future day be destroyed, 
arise from two causes : — the neglect of a sufficient 
education, and the vesting too great a proportion of 
the power in the hands of the young men. 

One of the means already alluded to by which 
this class of our citizens are brought forward, is the 
comparatively short tiuie allotted by us to perfecting 
education. This, to the extent to wliich we have 
thus far carried it, is well, for time enough has been 
taken to lay the foundation of that knowledge which 
will be necessary in the future. The great danger 
is, that having once entered upon active business, 
further attention to mental improvement will be 
abandoned — or that the means hereafter may not 
keep pace witlithe population, and our youth be forced 
into life without having had the recpjisite opportuni- 
ties of qualifying themselves. The only safeguard 
against such a calamity, is to pay the strictest atten- 
tion to the state of our schools, and to be sure that 
their number increases with the demand. 

For the other danger, the good sense of the com- 
munity alone can guard against it. All parties have 
an equal right to be represented — not alone the 
young, but also the old ; and experience of the habits 
of each season demands that one should be permitted 



15 



to temper the other. The activity of youth will carry 
into rapid effect the plans of age, and the caution of 
riper life, can direct that fire to useful purposes, 
wliich might otherwise only consume. With these 
two periods united, our Republic is comparatively 
safe, for the best wisdom and strength will be exert- 
ed for its protection. Separate them, and it will 
either lag slowly along in a doubtful course — or dash 
forward, regardless of the obstacles which will ere 
long shake it into ruin. 

Another peculiarity which has produced no small 
effect upon our institutions, is the absence of a pro- 
tected, national religion. 



This anomaly in the g^ii^al history of govern- 
ments, sprung naturally from the circumstances under 
which so great a part of our country was settled. Per- 
secutions had raged in England against the dissenters 
from the established church, with almost as much 
fury as had formerly marked the course of the bloody 
Claverhouse, when tracking the Covenanters from 
cavern to hill-side. The tide which had risen with 
Cromwell, had fallen with him. The reaction was 
more than in proportion, and the waves rolled back 
again with a madness, greater than that which had 
piled them up. There was but one watch-word, the 
union of Church and King, and wo ! to those who 
refused to utter it. 

A deep religious conviction is the most operative 
of all sentiments. Basing itself upon what are con- 
sidered the secured privileges of eternity, arguments 
or sufferings of a temporal nature are disregarded ; 



16 

and the nearer its subject comes to being a martyr, 
the stronger is his claim to put his sickle in to the 
harvest of future happiness. It was this which drove 
the stern and uncompromising Puritans from the 
homes around which their earliest affections had 
clustered, to the unknown wilds of our own land ; 
which led them freely to barter not only the luxuries, 
but almost the necessaries of life, for " freedom to 
worship God." 

Through the fault of the pilot, the colonists were 
landed in Plymouth, instead of on the Hudson, as 
they had intended ; and here in New England, the 
founders of our system of worship, breathed their 
first thanksgiving for a safe guidance, with the deep 
wilderness closing above their heads, and without an 
earthly witness, except perhaps a few groups of won- 
dering savages. 

That a class of men so situated should not have 
established a National religion, can be a matter of no 
surprise. This, and this alone, was the cause of 
their own wanderings, and they were conscious that 
they were only sustained under their severe sufferings 
by feeling that at last they had obtained, to use the 
language of their historian, " for themselves and their 
posterity, the liberty of worshipping God in such 
manner as appeared to them to be most agreeable to 
the sacred scriptures." 

This, however, was not only made necessary by 
their own fresh recollections of the burdens which 
an established religion imposed, but by the situation 
in which they were placed. The connexion between 
them and the parent country was weakened, but not 



17 

severed. They were still Colonists, and though se- 
ceding Trom the established church of home ; they 
might not interweave another set of doctrines with 
the laws which still originated there. The best that 
could be said of the view which was taken of their 
tenets on the opposite side of the Atlantic was, that 
not being forced into the sight, they w^ere connived 
at, as belonging to a class too powerless, and too 
distant to make it an object to crush them ; but our 
fathers well knew that the moment their peculiar 
doctrines were brought into actual collision with 
those of the mother-land, by establishing them as the 
tenets of the country, that moment they were not 
only to be ready, but in reality be obliged to support 
them with their lives. There was too much at that 
time pressing upon them — disturbing their harmony 
and interrupting their peace, to permit them willingly 
to provoke the wrath of England ; and though they 
would not prostitute their consciences at the bidding 
of any man, — both self-preservation and the welfare 
of the good cause which they had so much at heart, 
tauf^ht them that it was better for a season to wor- 
ship in the secrecy of their own closets, than on the 
housetop. This was the course of wisdom, and it 
has made for us a system of religious worship which 
entirely harmonizes with our beautiful theory of gov- 
ernment, and recognizes the principle to which I 
have before alluded— the equal rights of all. 

A part of the policy of our general government, is 

to restrict the patronage, as far as possible, of our 

principal executive officer. There are at this time 

more offices in the gift of the President of the United 

3 



18 

States than were originally contemplated, and the 
number of these must continually increase, with the 
increase of our population. An officer who is willing 
to abuse this high trust for party purposes, will al- 
ready find but too powerful an engine in his hands ; 
and the people from whom according to our theory 
all offices should flow, may at some future day be 
obliged to bow their necks to despots, whose ap- 
pointment they have blindly delegated to others. 
But in addition to this, had a National Religion ex- 
isted, the appointment to a majority of whose high 
trusts must have been vested in the executive of the 
nation, the prospect of our country would have been 
indeed gloomy, and there could have been no pledge 
given of our existence as a Republic, beyond the 
term of a single Presidency. 

The course adopted by our ancestors of recognis- 
ing the right of all to worship according to the dic- 
tates of their own consciences, is the only course 
which agrees with the pure spirit of our religion. 
The clergy form a large and important class of our 
citizens, and in proportion to their character and in- 
fluence, will be the state of morals in the commu- 
nity in which they reside. Under a National Religion 
the offices of the church would either have been 
confined to a certain class, or those who sought them 
would have been mere intriguing politicians, caring 
for no interests but their own, and making even the 
holy altar of God a stepping-stone to power. The 
effect of our present system, upon our clergy, is 
apparent and most healthy. Selected by those to 
whom they are to minister, no man dare present 



19 

himself for this holy office whose life and spirit are 
not in a(!cordance with its high duties ; and owine; 
to this, even at the present day, we almost alone 
possess the privilege of having the bread of life bro- 
ken to us by " clean hands." 

The last peculiarity of which I shall speak is, that 
our country has thus far not been burdened with a 
standing army. 

Owing to its youth, it is comparatively an easy 
task to go back to the origin of its institutions. 
They will be found to have grown out of the mere 
situation in which our ancestors were placed ; — or 
the circumstances under which their peculiar habits 
of thinking were imbibed : or in some instances, un- 
der a union of both. The first settlers had neither 
spare population, nor a redundancy of means ; — a 
mercenary army with them therefore, whether to be 
formed from their own citizens or foreigners, was en- 
tirely out of the question. 

Instead of treating with the savages as with a 
civilized people, it was the fashion of that day to 
consider them as mere incumbrances, and the whole 
territory was claimed as belonging, by the right of 
settling, to his Britannic majesty. The natives 
themselves encouraged this, by the passive ease with 
which they yielded to the claims of their white 
neighbors, until goaded into acts of madness, they 
rose from time to time, to harass those who had 
come among them bearing the exterminating sword. 

The uncertain, yet deadly mode, of warfare, prac- 
ticed by the Indians, made it necessary for each man 



20 

to keep his aims by him, and to be always ready, 
whether in the field, or in the church, — standing be- 
fore the altar, or by the grave, to defend himself and 
his possessions. The savages fought to regain the 
homes of their fathers. The colonists, — to secure 
the holy land for which they had sought as the rest- 
ing-place of the " Tabernacle of the Testimony." 
The first settlers therefore were a nation of soldiers ; 
trained perhaps not so much to act in concert, as to 
effect the most deadly execution through an un- 
shrinking dependence upon their own courage and 
resources, and an unlimited reliance upon the pro- 
tection of the God of battles. 

In the subsequent periods of our history, our local 
position, as well as the acquired habits of relying up- 
on ourselves, made the formation of a standing army, 
a useless and dangerous experiment. 

From their mere situation, the different nations of 
Europe could at no time have disbanded their regu- 
lar troops. The safety of each, and the mutual 
safety of all require that they should be continued — 
Norway, Sweden and Russia on her north and west, 
and Turkey, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, 
Germany, Prussia, England and Ireland on her south 
and east, form a collection of powerful nations, ad- 
joining each other, or at most only divided by rivers 
or by narrow channels. In such a cluster of jealous 
communities, each guaranteeing protection to its own 
citizens, and watching against the infringements of 
its neighbor, perpetual causes of dispute are liable to 
occur, and no one can tell how soon the adjoining 
territory may be reddened by the beacon of war. 



21 

All that either can do is to guard as far as possible 
against these chances, and to keep itself in a strong 
state to enable it to resist — and this can only be done 
speedily and effectually by means of a regular army. 
The accidental situation of these countries has thus 
imposed upon them this burden, from which they can 
never escape. 

The situation of the United States, on the contra- 
ry, is such as should of all others have been selected 
for an experiment in government. She stands al- 
most alone, without any other great power to press 
upon her, or bring their inhabitants into collision with 
hers. On her north, there are a few British colonies, 
and on her south a small cluster of Spanish states, 
but separated from the immediate protection of their 
own governments, they are far too powerless to in- 
jure her even if they became hostile ; while between 
us and Europe, which alone could place us in peril, 
the waves of the broad Atlantic roll up their natural 
barrier. 

The only foreign enemies who could at any time 
have annoyed us, were, on the one hand, the powers 
of Europe; — and their course must have been so slow 
as to have given us the means of preparation, before 
any attack could be made ; — and on the other, the 
tribes of hostile savages. To guard against these, 
it was early the policy of our country, to place 
strong fortifications along the outposts, and to keep 
just force enough to garrison them ; and then by a 
distribution of arms among our citizens, whose right 
to possess them is acknowledged in our Constitution, 
to be able to use these forces as the centre around 



22 

which they may all gather in times of commotion. 
If there ever was a system beneath which the peo- 
ple might rest secure, it is this. — We cannot, to be 
sure, point out to any one who asks us for our means 
of defence, an hired army who will sell their blood 
to tlie highest bidder — but we can point him to our 
whole land as one great fortification, and to every 
inhabitant as a soldier — and though we bind none of 
our troops to us by their interest in their monthly 
pay, there are few so poor that they have not a 
hearth to defend, and objects of affection beneath their 
own roof-tree, for whom they will give their lives 
when the times demand them. 

That, however, we might derive all the advantages 
of which this system was capable, it w as not enough 
that each man should possess arms, and be willing to 
use them, but also necessary that he should know 
how to do it with the greatest speed and efficiency. 
If a sudden alarm arose, and the inhabitants were ral- 
lied, they could gain but little by possessing individu- 
ally, the means of defence, if there was no plan of 
organization established, by w hich they might act in 
concert. To perfect, therefore, our scheme, and en- 
able us to dispense with a standing army, and be at 
the same time ready to meet any invasion with a 
prompt resistance, it was necessary that the citizens 
should be divided into distinct portions, under the 
command of their own officers ; and that for a few 
times during each year, they should be brought to- 
gether, and have the benefit of acting collectively, 
and the means of learning the general outline of their 
duties. It was never pretended that these short and 



23 

occasional drillings, would make men thorough sol- 
diers ; nor was this contemphited by the framers of 
the system. It was never imagined that a long war 
could be advantageously carried on with them alone, 
but they can suppress domestic tumult, and repel in- 
vasions which may be made upon our extensive coast 
and frontier, and keep the enemy in check, till regu- 
lar troops are formed out of their ranks. 

During our long peace, in which the services of our 
militia have not been needed, and its strong arm has 
been kept out of sight, those upon whom its exac- 
tions have fallen, directly or indirectly, have accus- 
tomed themselves to speak lightly of its merits, and 
with sarcasms of the necessity for its continuance. 
When the services of the tried ally have been ren- 
dered, we are ready enough to underrate them, and 
to murmur at the pittance which his support requires. 
If proof that such is but too much the case, as it re- 
gards individuals as well as institutions were needed, 
I should mournfully point your attention to the paths 
by which the soldiers themselves who gained for us 
all our privileges in the war of our Revolution, with 
the exception of a small remnant for whom Congress 
has at length made a scanty provision, have passed 
through their last years of life, in the midst of sor- 
rows for which we have shewn no sympathy — Suffer- 
ings which we have not alleviated, — and impover- 
ished age, which we have refused to shelter, — until 
worn out with fruitless prayers for our aid, they 
have one by one laid down, " unknown, unhonored, 
and unwept," — to die. 



24 



The two great arguments brought against a mili- 
tia system, are, that it is of no use in time of peace, 
and that its su})port is a heavy burden upon the 
people. 

We are ready to allow that it is of no apparent 
utility to the superficial observer, and therefore that 
it is very likely to become unpopular with the great 
mass of the ])eople But that such is in fact the 
case, we cannot so easily admit. If I were to draw 
an argument from the present state of the world, I 
should say that it presented exactly such an appear- 
ance as it has never before shown. The general diffu- 
sion of knowledge has thrown a light over the obscure 
abuses w liich have been suffered to grow up with the 
governments of Europe, and those, who so long as 
they did not see them had become reconciled by 
long habit to patient endurance, are now convulsed 
with unaccustomed efforts to throw off the burden. 

The civilized world has felt the shock, and if 
there is any spirit abroad, it is that of excitement, 
and a readiness to subvert the existing order of things. 
But not to make use of an argument which will apply 
solely to the present, let us look for a moment at the 
comparative state of Europe and America. In the 
old country the population is too much for the soil, 
or in other words, the amount of proffered labor ex- 
ceeds the demand. The consequence is that vast 
numbers are out of employ, and without the means 
of earning their daily bread. Hence the last few years 
have brought us perpetual accounts, particularly from 
England and Ireland, of riots — of the turning out 
of the people for higher wages than the produce 



25 

would allow — of a horrible state of starvation and 
the most dreadful sufferings induced bj poverty. 

The markets have been overstocked, and of course 
there could be no encouragement to produce ; and the 
land being overburdened, the poor laborer had no 
means of obtaining a living. 

America, on the other hand, is thinly peopled in 
proportion to the extent of her territory. Labor is 
high vvith us, and produce cheap. No man here, 
having health and strength, need be poor, or at least 
his exertions will at all times command an adequate 
supjDort. This acts as a premium upon emigration, 
and the effect is that the surplus population of Eu- 
rope is fast flowing into our land, and becoming a 
part of ourselves. The class of citizens most liable 
to be affected by the pressure of the times abroad, 
and of course to come here, as a class, is the worst 
educated, and least likely to know the boundary 
which divides liberty from licentiousness ; and when 
they are once removed from the restraints imposed 
by regular forces, not unfrequently brought into ac- 
tion at home, they can only be restrained here by 
feeling that the whole people forms an army, and that 
a militia can be called out at a moment's warning, 
promptly and resolutely to enforce the laws. 

The internal improvements which are taking place 
in our country, are perpetually bringing our great 
cities nearer to each other, and finding employment 
in masses for thousands of our own citizens and for- 
eigners. To say that with bodies thus situated riots 
and disturbances are kept down, or if they were once 
excited, that they could be quelled by the mere ab- 
4 



26 

stract fear of the laws, is to make an assertion un- 
supported by any knowledge of human nature, or the 
experience of other countries ; — and where that is 
insufficient, and the civil force which could be array- 
ed, necessarily too weak to oppose any obstacle, the 
only security which can be offered to a country, is an 
organized militia, and it is precisely in times of 
general peace that this protection is needed. 

As to the second objection ; — if the militia exerts 
this healtliy influence, then the burden of supporting 
it cannot be weighed against the protection which 
it actually affords. 

The magnitude of these burdens however, is much 
overrated — and they are in fact less oppressive than 
the requisitions made in many other branches for the 
general welfare — undoubtedly the loss of a day's la- 
bor is felt by individuals ; but it is a selfish spirit 
covetting the shelter of the tree, which its own toil 
has not raised, which leads them to murmur at such 
a triflino; inconvenience. 

It has been said, in the fashionable language of 
the day ; that the militia could not be depended up- 
on even in case of a sudden invasion. Washing- 
ton said that New-England might be defended 
by her militia alone ; and have her sons degene- 
rated, or are their interests less dear to them 
now ? Look at the transactions in our sister State 
a few months since, and I ask you what would have 
become of tlie fciir town of Providence, if the spirit 
of her young men had perished beneath the abuse 
lavished upon the system. Had the arm of her mili- 
tia been paralysed — before the rage of her rioters 



27 

could have been quelled, she would have lain a heap 
of ruins — and among those whose voices have been 
loudest in mockery at the system, there might have 
been wailing for the massacre of those they were 
loth to lose. 

The history of the past, teems with records of 
what the American militia have done — surround- 
ed as all of our countrymen are by objects of affec- 
tion, and the comforts of life, there are noble motives 
to nerve their arms when summoned into battle. — 
Hitherto they have never forgotten them ; it depends 
upon us, not upon our system, to say if they will 
neglect them in the future. Look at the services 
which they have in former years rendered to the 
country. While we were struggling forward into 
existence, they were the ramparts drawn around the 
homes of our fathers. Can they not indeed be de- 
pended upon ! In our former wars, with their bayo- 
nets they have traced their own eulogy, in the best 
blood of their enemies. The plains of Lexington 
bear witness for them. When the alarm bell gave 
notice in 1775, of the approach of the British, it was 
a little band of militia who gathered before the 
church as their " ark of the Covenant," and offered 
the first resistance to their progress ; and it is above 
their grave, on the field where they fell, that the 
simple monument now rises, which will long bear 
record of them as the first martyrs to liberty. 

Let me call to your remembrance the battle at the 
bridge of Concord, where the enemy were repelled 
by a militia infinitely worse armed and worse orga- 
nized, than any we in our time have ever seen — not 



28 

only repelled by these men^ but driven back to Bos- 
ton, and there besieged by our gathering country- 
men, until a regular army was formed out of their 
numbers. And so it will always be ; when danger 
is near our citizens will not sit patiently, and trust 
their dearest rights to the protection of a hired force ; 
but buckling on their armor will go forth to the strug- 
gle, in the name of God, for victory and freedom. 

During the infancy of America her feeble colonies 
were at all times surrounded by the tribes of hostile 
savages ; yet those colonies prospered, for the militia 
were their defenders, and their confidence in it was 
unshaken. But why need I dwell upon the various 
services which they have rendered. The French 
wars, and the surrender of Burgoyne alike bear wit- 
ness for them : and the defence of New Orleans 
against the best troops of Great Britain — troops, 
some of which shortly after gathered innnortal lan- 
ds on the plains of Waterloo — is no inglorious tribute. 
But above all, if I wanted an argument in their fa- 
vor, which could not be controverted ; and a record 
of deeds which had traced their names upon the 
brightest page of fame, I should point to that well 
known height, which rises in our own neighborhood 
and which we can almost see from this very spot — 
Bunker's Hill. 

The remnant of the breastwork which the militia 
of Massachusetts had piled up in one night, yet re- 
mains to mark the spot where our fathers stood 
shoulder to shoulder, without ilinchinf?-, beneath the 
deadly assault of their opponents ; obeying the stern 
order of their officers, " not to fire until the enemy 



29 

were so near that they could distmguish the whites of 
their eyes;" and traces of the old rail fence are yet 
pointed out, behind which they stood when at last they 
did return the discharge, with an aim so close and 
deadly while their ammunition lasted, that another 
such victory over the militia, would have cost England 
all the bravest of her forces. 

It may be that in our day, her services will not be 
needed ; God grant it. But the history of the last 
few years is full of mournful import, and a voice has 
more than once come to us from the South, calculat- 
ing the value of our Union. Once sever the compact 
by which we were united by Washington and his 
brothers in arms, and the jealousies of each sovereign 
state, will rise in judgment against its neighbor. 
The price of the Union will be weighed against 
blood — and after the bold spirit of independence 
which our harmonious coalition has created, has gone 
forth and shaken the thrones of Europe, it will re- 
turn again to perish on our own shores, and make 
the land of its birth, its dishonored grave. 

Let us turn to brighter prospects. Our destiny is 
in our own hands, and we will not prove false to 
ourselves; — the only representative government in 
existence entirely elective, is ours ; and should we 
neglect it, the other nations of the earth will be with- 
out hope. At this day our territory extends from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada to Mex- 
ico, and witl^in its vast limits every variety of climate 
tempers its different soil, and calls forth its own pro- 
duce. The necessaries and the luxuries of life are 
alike ours, and our situation encourages the exertions 



30 

of the manufacturer, and pours wealth into the cof- 
fers of the merchant and the mechanic. Our re- 
sources are abundant within ourselves. Lands, which 
generations to come cannot occupy spread out from 
our shores, and as our population increases, new in- 
stitutions continually rise and " do us honor." 

If we continue as we have thus far done, in half 
a century we shall be a nation of fifty millions of 
freemen, governing ourselves by the will of the ma- 
jority. 

It becomes us often to recur to the principles upon 
which our government is based ; to cherish deep im- 
pressions of the benefits flowing around us from our 
harmonious union, and an habitual reverence for our 
laws and our religion, if we would secure the best 
means of making our government lasting. 

Our Republic with such efforts cannot but be safe. 
The very peculiarities which distinguish her, will 
form her greatest ornaments ; and should an hour of 
peril ever overshadow her, like the Roman mother 
she may offer up her children to the public need, as 
her brightest jewels. 



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